But thinking about your idea... indeed... would make a nice feature to use an old save (?) and import you "veteran" IMP in a new mod or something.

Heck with externalised mercs you could even take Ira for a ride in the new adventure... Maybe we can get "evolutionary mercs" as an option when starting a new mod based on SMP. Sir-teach always "pimped" the bios of the mercs from one game version to another, would be cool to have such feature automatically.

/EDIT: I took a peak at the code and it seems like the bulk of the job is done by launching the external utility

... bad new is that I don't think they released the source code for that one. Might be hard to replicate the process. But again, with all mercs externalised, we might get something even better...

/EVEN LATER EDIT: WRONG!! All the code is in Ja25Update.c and it doesn't only import your IMP, it updates ALL AIM and MERC mercenaries! Heck this is one that's going directly into SMP, I wonder how we missed it all these years (well the fact that we didn't know about UB source is a factor lol):

I was also thinking that if it could be fully externalized perhaps several files could progress with an ongoing mod series. At the very least it could be used to tie a series of mini mods into a truly epic mod. This could allow modders to create a huge mod that is ready to play in a few months or maybe a year then add to it ala game import.

there was some kind of a bug - ionce endet up with all m*e*r*c-mercs gone to the fishes and about 8 a.i.m.-mercs still allive, but a crack imp. when i imported that game to ub i got a lot of zombies at both agencies

Right. And some wise coder once told me the only limit to what you can do is how much work you are willing to put into it. Even nothing better than the standard UB import would open doors to modders especially if this import could carry on mod after mod. We could have episodic mods or even (shudder to think) mission based mods.

Externalize just a few aspects and you could have seamless import capability no matter how radically different one mod was to another. Imagine taking your Urban Chaos team from Danubia to the Caucasus or anywhere else a mod was set in.

Again, the primary focus should be on which version is best suited to build the SMP from. Then we should endeavor to add at least as many externalizations as are present in the standard 1.13. But along the way, if a coder decides to start tinkering with the import aspect it would be fairly easy to create a mini mod to test his work. We could some day realize some of the mod ideas that cannot work in a single setting and better yet provide players with their favorite mercs in an ongoing adventure.

Yes, basically, beside any gfx updates you might or might not incorporate in your mod (a story can very well be told using a generic tileset made from all the mods ever published), the single most dynamic object in the game is the human factor. Since the days of JA1 we had followed basically the life and death of AIM mercs.

The import feature should, imho, work like this:

1. Import stats & merc deaths from old game
2. Allow the modder to set up a "replacement pool" of new mercs
3. Allow the modder to set "merc aging" factors that alter (++/--) final stats and give some fresh flavour and randomness
4. allow the modder to write new bios reflecting the "aging" factor, maybe even attach "alternate" bios to possible dice rolls (normal roll, critical improvement, critical downgrade).
5. Define "career traits" based on the known bios for mercs and allow "aging" to follow those paths on normal dice rolls.
6. Setup new fees accordingly (define a formula that takes into account increasing/decreasing of stats)
...

Episodic/mission mods would be epic, indeed.

[DREAMING ON]

I am seeing JA2UC 2 on a Mission Repository. Team writes each month a new episode, uploads it. People fire up the game, a blinking light says "New Mission Available!". You press "Download", the game gets the files and your laptop is updated with the new goals, maps, etc. Your old mission isn't deleted either, it stays in its own folder (here it's upon the modder to set dependencies that can force or not the player to complete the current mission).

JA2UC 3 Mission Server. AIM now has a new agency, called "The Pit", made up of hardened veterans, all ready for some MMORPG action.
- You log in, check "Available Mercs", make up a team of Khor, Mauser, Shanga, Headrock (we need someone to carry the canteens) and Majek (and we need one to swear every step of the way). You also add Scope from AIM cause all the aforementioned ones cannot hit a barn on the broadside.
- You check "Missions" from all over the world. Some pay better but are high risk, some are easier but barely cover YOUR expenses. You accept one mission and start killing.
- After succesfully completing the mission, each participant is automatically rated, gets improvements in the skills, gets even a new Experience level (or Rank). The ones who took part as mercenaries get payed from YOUR account, you who led the team get your money from AIM/whatever.
- You thank everyone and log off, hoping tomorrow you'll find a much better team available than those losers, lol.